Stephanie Letten (pictured outside court), 21, from Clapham in south London, launched the attack on Michelle James next to the tourist attraction on July 4 this year
A barmaid attacked a mother and ripped out clumps of her hair after she asked her to ‘say sorry’ for hitting her daughter with a disabled toilet door at the London Eye.
Stephanie Letten, 21, from Clapham in south London, launched the attack on Michelle James next to the tourist attraction on July 4 this year.
Letten came out of the disabled toilet and hit the three-year-old girl with the door.
When the child said she had hurt her shoulder, Ms James told Letten ‘you could say sorry’.
Letten replied: ‘I’m not going to, I don’t have to say sorry’ before walking away.
Ms James said she then heard Letten shouting ‘that lady’s a pig’ from the sink area.
Letten’s friend Yasmin Sinclair then stood behind Ms James in the cubicle to ask her what had happened.
Ms James told Croydon Magistrates’ Court: ‘I then heard the lady started to shout again, I heard her getting closer so I turned around.
‘Miss Letten started saying she was going to take me on. I said: “Don’t think because I’m fat and old you can take me on” – as this is the kind of thing she had been saying about me earlier.
‘She tried to hit me with her right hand. I put up my hand but neither of us made contact because Miss Sinclair was in between us.
‘She then tried to kick me. I was still in the cubicle with my daughter at this time as there was nowhere to go. When she raised her hand to grab my hair she did so.
‘I shoved her and her friend out of the cubicle towards the sinks. She then continued to hold my hair until she ripped it out.
‘She then started laughing say that she had my “nappy” hair in her hands and then she threw it towards the sink and it went into the sink.
‘She then started to say I was fat and a pig again, and then they walked out of the toilets at which point I turned towards my daughter.
‘Before I got to the cubicle I heard foot steps running towards me and she was running towards me like she was going to hit me again.
Letten, who denied the charge, was convicted of assault by beating
‘She didn’t make contact with me but she did grab my top and I pulled away from her and she stopped and her friend was saying “let’s go”.
‘Her friend was telling me to leave the toilet but I couldn’t leave my child in there. I was telling them to leave.’
She said Letten walked out of the toilet again but then came back again and Ms James held her against the sinks to calm her down.
‘She had a bottle in her hand.’
She said Letten then hurled the bottle at her. Asked how the incident had affected her, Ms James said: ‘It’s affected my daughter the most.
‘She started wetting the bed a couple of days after. She had five weeks where she was afraid to go to the toilet and wet herself. It even happened at nursery, she had to be changed two or three times a day.
‘Even when you put her on the toilet she said. she didn’t need to go and then would wet herself.’
Chair of the bench Edward Gold said: ‘We have heard from the complainant that there was a confrontation on the toilets and that you were the instigator.
‘We found her account credible and her injuries are consistent with the account. We also heard your evidence and that you did accept that you pulled some of her hair out albeit that it was in a confrontation.
‘We are statisfied that you are guilty of assault by beating as per the Crown’s case.’
Letten, who denied the charge, was convicted of assault by beating.
She will be sentenced at Camberwell Green Magistrates’ on November 3.